@ #7: i don't think any seattle street artists or graffiti artists are complaining that their art is removed. street art is fleeting, and that is what is known. it's more of an issue about being lumped in to the same category as careless taggers who disrespect other art and of course others' property. just because there are irresponsible, self-involved taggers that get up around the city so frequently doesn't mean that seattle has no street art...

http://www.flickr.com/groups/seattlestre…

I went to Home Depot today and got spray paint off of a shelf TODAY.. there was no lock and key involved.

get your facts straight Greg

Seattle has the ugliest graffiti of any city I have ever been in. The stickers are a blight. The writing on anything big enough to write is just plain stupid. It is not artistic in any sense. It is UGLY. I remember when Fantasy LTD was on 1st and Pike. It was beautiful, graffiti-like but very well done. Taggers kept tagging over it and any other decent art in the downtown area.

We need SEVERE penalties for these VANDALS. I think they chop your hand off in Turkey if you get caught stealing. Maybe in America we could find some sort of grunt work to punish these asshole vandals. What we are doing is not working.

Owners are required to paint out graffiti or be fined = Stupid
Owners are not required to use the same color paint = Stupid
Owners are not required to paint the whole wall = Stupid

So we have multi-colored walls made of patches covered with graffiti = ! ! ! UGLY ! ! !

Look at this address. 420 E Denny Way Seattle, WA 98122 This is a horrendous FAILURE for the owner and everyone who has to look at it. The owner has painted it, the neighbors have painted it, but a week does not go by where some asshole goes and wipes its ugliness all over it and any blank spot that exists.

The graffiti people are useless, their hands are tied because of the way the law is written. The police have to "catch them in the act" of doing it. And it is ok to paint your building to be the blight of the neighborhood. It is fucking UGLY. I am so sick of looking at this mess.

And i remember the Lone Ranger article the stranger wrote about this AUG 22 2007. What a crock of shit that was. Anthony is not one bit interested in catching these vandals. He is interested is referring you to a company who charges you a fortune to clean up the graffiti for you. No prevention, no prosecution, and "here is some paint, you clean it up and watch out for the needles". Fuck you ! Fuck you and all of you and your fucking bullshit. Fucking Vandals.

http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Conte…

hahahaaha! graffiti is not art! it's fun and very addictive. it's something a civil sane person couldn't began to understand and their really isn't much to understand, you are writing on walls to impress normal day to day "art" loving folks, It's a non stop dog eat dog violent competition between other writers that span world wide and no building, street sign, mural, surface is safe if a writer feel he/she wants to get up on it bottom line, call it what you want, but it won't be stopped anytime soon. I've been writing for over 15 years, and I know kids that have that same shitty little ball of anger inside of them that I did and they are out every night getting up so they can be the next king of the city!

I don't know where city officials came up with the definition of "colorful or complex...masterpieces" for street art. Do a quick search in wikipedia and you'll better understand; a better definition for street art would be: unsanctioned art created in the public realm.

This article fails. It fails not only to bring to light any new or interesting facts on an over-discussed topic, but also fails to clearly define what street art even is. A mural is executed in the public realm, but since it is sanctioned, it is not street art (Caption fail). A public art wall where people can practice (Tubs/Sodo wall/Redmond Skate park) is not the same thing as the Georgetown art wall (mural) or the art wall (mural) at the Monique lofts. And lastly, street art executed on a public art wall is not really street art, since it is sanctioned. Also, street art is not necessarily graffiti. And it's also not necessarily artistic tagging.

Please, everyone involved in this article: do some background research so you have an ounce of credibility.

@ 28 - I admire your call for graffiti artists to just plain do a better job (rather than just tagging the crap out of stuff), however you final comment of "the city can't fine themselves" I have to disagree with. The city most certainly CAN fine themselves - and it does via the clean-up costs it incurs. Of course we the taxpayers are the city and we are the ones paying the fines.